Six soldiers serving with the Nato-led force in Afghanistan have been killed, the alliance has announced. They died when the vehicle they were travelling in hit an explosive device, a statement from Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said. One other soldier was injured. The nationalities of the dead and injured have not yet been released. The announcement came as Nato and Afghan troops battled Taleban militants in southern Helmand province. An Isaf spokeswoman told the BBC there had been no civilian casualties and that all signs pointed to the Taleban. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

An unseasonable cold snap put a chill on Easter Sunday services across the Southeast and much of the rest of America, moving some events indoors and adding layers over spring frocks. Even baseball had to take a time out — because of snow. The usual courtyard service at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Columbia, South Carolina, had to be moved indoors, said the Rev. Michael Bingham. Sunday morning lows in Columbia dropped to the upper 20s Fahrenheit, the National Weather Service said. "Our musicians are worried about their fingers," he said Saturday as the church's plans were being changed. Across much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation, Easter celebrants swapped frills, bonnets and sandals for coats, scarves and heavy socks. Baseball fans huddled in blankets and, instead of spring planting, backyard gardeners were bundling their crops. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/08/national/main2661313.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._2661313

Thousands of Iraqis streamed to the holy southern city of Najaf on Sunday in response to a call by fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr for a big anti-American protest on Monday. Sadr, who blames the U.S.-led invasion for Iraq's unrelenting violence, has urged Iraqis to protest on a day that marks the fourth anniversary of when American forces swept into central Baghdad."In order to end the occupation, you will go out and demonstrate," Sadr, who accuses U.S. forces of deliberately fomenting civil strife in Iraq, said in a statement.A car bomb killed 17 people and wounded two dozen in the town of Mahmudiya south of Baghdad, officials said, in the latest attack outside Baghdad since a new U.S.-backed security plan took effect in the capital.A suicide car bomb also killed seven people in Baghdad while four U.S. soldiers were killed in an explosion near their vehicle on Saturday north of the capital....http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070408/ts_nm/iraq_dc

It was a balmy night, the sort that brings the homeless out from the shelters, when the police were summoned to America Street. On the driveway of a condo, just a few paces from the gutter, lay a man.A dying man.He looked to be 50-ish, and a resident of Orlando's streets, judging by the moldy jacket. And he'd been bludgeoned — so badly bludgeoned that he could hardly move.Before being rushed to the hospital, where he died of his head injuries, the man, August Felix, described his attackers. Young fellows did it, he whispered to the officers who got to him first. Kids.Within three months, two 16-year-olds and three 15-year-olds had been charged with second-degree homicide in the March 26, 2006, attack. The motive? "I don't think there was a motive," Sgt. Barbara Jones, a police spokeswoman, said, "other than, 'Let's beat someone up."'...http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-08-homelessattacks_N.htm?csp=34

In an Easter message pinned to church bulletin boards around the country, Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic bishops called on President Robert Mugabe to leave office or face "open revolt" from those suffering under his government. The letter, titled "God Hears the Cries of the Oppressed," was the most critical pastoral message since Zimbabwe won independence from Britain in 1980 and Mugabe assumed leadership of the country for the first time. Once prosperous, the country is reeling under hyperinflation of more than 1,700 percent, 80 percent unemployment, shortages of food and other basic goods and one of the world's lowest life expectancies. "As the suffering population becomes more insistent, generating more and more pressure through boycotts, strikes, demonstrations and uprisings, the state responds with ever harsher oppression through arrests, detentions, banning orders, beatings and torture," the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference said ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/08/world/main2661316.shtml?source=RSSattr=World_2661316

Rarely do the insurgents take on American troops few but formidable in the Baylough Bowl. But in a gray world where allegiances are fluid and identities are closely guarded, the Taliban are always watching and waiting. No sooner does a patrol leave its primitive mud fort on foot or wheels than the chatter on Taliban frequencies begins: "The Americans have just left. They're coming this way. We will need more reinforcements if they approach any closer …" "They're probably looking at us right now from one of those peaks," says Abdul Farid, an Afghan interpreter and radio monitor as he leaves Forward Operating Base Baylough (rhymes with buy low) in the southeastern province of Zabul. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3020516